Connections
by NimeReak
Summary: Ed and Al come home full of holes, and Winry throws a book. While Winry's mad and her and Edward are sulking, what do Pinako and Al seem to be up to? EdWin. Fluffish oneshot.


**DISCLAIMER**: Nah, I really, REALLY don't own Full Metal Alchemist. It would be a really crappy story line if I did X.X;

Wootnanny! Haha no really don't ask I just think it's funny to say. xD  
Aye! Well it's only been a couple of days and yet I strike again! I'm surprising myself with the amount I want to write, but I can't be that bad of a thing...can it? Lets hope not :D  
Oh, and this fic is dedicated 100 percent to my wonderful friend Liz – better known around here as Moopyshmoo!  
Her birthday was on the 5th and I promised to dedicate it to her, cause she's an EdWin fan too :3  
And she's totally amazing, of course. THIS IS FOR YOU, LIZZLES!  
Now everyone please read on and enjoy!

* * *

Winry Rockbell was sitting out on her porch. Den was half in her lap, as she absent-mindedly stroked him. What she was really paying attention to was the book in her hand. It was about automail, of course. She was completely immersed in it, ignoring most of the world around her. She was just getting to a section about nuts and bolts and which ones were the top of the line, when the whispers of a specific laugh reached her ears. Ed?

She looked up, her mind still on the book, and saw nothing. No one was coming up the path, so she shook her head and wrote it off that the wind was just playing tricks on her ears. She looked down at the book again and started reading where she had left off. Then, she could have sworn she heard the rough clank of armor. She frowned and looked up again. There, coming through the shortcut in the fields they had discovered as kids, she saw them.

Edward and Alphonse were home for a visit.

The book went flying and Den yelped a little and jumped off Winry as she stood and leapt from the porch, then took off racing towards her childhood friends. "Ed! Al!" She called excitedly.

Ed grinned, and Al did his version of smiling, when you could mostly see it in his eyes. Al waved and Winry laughed. It had been months since Winry had seen either one of them, but she slowed her run to a walk when she was halfway to them. Her eyes narrowed and she scrutinized the two of them. Al had a bunch of dents in his armor and Ed's automail arm seemed to be dangling rather uselessly. She stopped dead in her tracks and Ed and Al exchanged a nervous glance.

Her arms folded under her chest and her foot began to tap as they approached, their footsteps becoming shorter and shorter until they stopped ten feet away from her, not daring to get any closer. "How broken are you?" She said, glowering at the two of them.

They exchanged another glance, and looking at the ground Ed pointed to his arm. Al looked sheepish and he turned around, revealing a great big hole in his back. "Could we uh...get some scrap metal?" Ed asked tentatively. She glared at him. She turned around curtly and began walking to the house.

"Follow me." She growled back to the two of them. Ed sighed once and ran his fingers through his bangs. He was relieved that she had nothing large and painful on her person or both he and Al would probably be on the ground after being struck by something.

"Well. You heard the lady." He said to Al, hitching up his suitcase in his hand and setting off, a good twenty feet behind Winry, and keeping all of that space in between them for his own safety.

"I told you she was going to be mad, brother!" Al insisted, catching up with his brother in two strides. Ed merely rolled his eyes.

"Well of COURSE she was going to be mad. She hates it when we come back here broken." Ed drawled.

"And those are the only times we come here at all..." Al said sadly.

Ed pursed his lips, and nodded. He didn't always like that fact himself, and he knew how Winry hated it. Pinako was usually just pleased to see them whenever she could. She trusted a few things about the boys. She trusted that they could take care of themselves on a regular basis. She trusted that they could get in large amounts of trouble on a regular basis. And most of all she trusted that they got broken on a regular basis. She got to see them often enough, and that was okay with her. As long as they were repairable, it would be all right. She worried about them, of course, but she did trust them.

Winry, unfortunately, was a different case completely.

She never stopped worrying about the boys, and burst into anger whenever she saw however badly they had disabled themselves this time. She fixed them, of course. She would never leave them broken. If she didn't fix them Pinako would and if Pinako didn't they would go somewhere else. And everyone knew that if that ever happened the boys would probably never come back. Yes, Winry had long ago abandoned the hope that if she just didn't fix them they would stay. Stomping ahead in front of them, she shoved a hand back through her blond locks and sighed. "Granny!" She called loudly. "Ed and Al are here!"

Pinako appeared at the front door almost immediately. "Well hello boys. You're late." She said calmly.

"Late?" Winry questioned.

Pinako nodded. "Don't you remember Winry? I told you they were coming." Dumbfounded, Winry looked at her Grandmother.

"When?" she asked, terribly confused now.

"This morning. You were reading, I think. But you waved at me after I told you, I thought you were aware." Pinako told her casually. She had known that Winry had been paying her little to no attention. That's always how the girl got when around something that was new and/or automail related.

A small pink tinge appeared on Winry's cheeks. "Uhm...oh." she said, having nothing else to actually say. She felt a silly now.

"Oh I see." Ed's voice appeared next to her ear, his warm breath tickling the back of her neck. She shivered at him being this close to her like this. His voice was the silky smooth that he always used when he was feeling smug. "Couldn't pay enough attention to your own grandmother to even care that we were coming." Another tremor of pleasure ran down her spine, but she refused to act on it. Instead, she turned her head slowly to look at him over her shoulder and her eyes flashed.

Ed instantly looked nervous. She was going to kill him...possibly. Instead, she let out a small 'hmph', turned her face away from him quickly, managing to whip her hair straight into his face. She walked up onto the porch, stooped to grab her book, and then she stalked off into the house.

Ed sputtered for a moment, spitting hair out of his mouth, and then blinked once. He winced as Winry slammed the door behind her. A minute later her window clacked loudly as she shut those too. He could easily concur that the door to her room was shut as well, probably locked. Open to anyone but him. He scowled deeply. "Great to be home." He said sarcastically.

Al didn't really catch it. "You brought it on yourself brother, you always do." Al sighed behind Ed. Edward didn't even look at him, he just fumed. Dumb girl being...dumb. Oh yes that was he, Edward Elric, egomaniac and master of all things alchemy, and failure at witty insults!

Ed just walked up the porch steps and went in the house, annoyed with himself. How was he so good at making Winry upset? It was like some crappy talent. He was never very happy when she was mad at him, which was often. Their fights were usually short lived but another one always seemed to pop up again quickly. He sighed and clanked up the stairs, putting his suitcase in his room and then staying there to pout.

Meanwhile Pinako and Al were still outside, watching the events play out like they did all the time.

"So, think they'll confess this time around?" Pinako asked Al with a chuckle.

"I hope so. I think they would fight less if they would just admit it to each other." Al said with a sigh. "Brother always has her on his mind, to some degree."

Pinako nodded. "And it's obvious that Ed takes up most of her thoughts. Too bad both of them are too shy to admit anything." The old woman sighed, then turned to Al. "Let me see your back..." Al turned around sheepishly.

"Brother just needs some scrap metal and he can make it right again." She nodded, then smirked.

"But first, let's torture them during dinner."

* * *

Winry slammed her window shut; blocking all ways that anyone could get into her room and invade her sulk. She flopped onto her bed, lying on her stomach and her face pressed into a pillow. She frowned. Why did he have to be such an ass all the time? Then, she remembered how close his body had been, his warm breath on the back of her neck...

She shuddered again, and the looked down at her arms. Goosebumps had appeared all over her flesh. She rubbed at her arm for a moment, trying to make them go away. That stupid weenie shouldn't have such control over her like that! Of course...it's not like he knew he did. She could just picture his smug little smirk if he ever found out. He might use it for his advantage in certain situations, but...

But it would never be enough to make him stay for good.

So what point was there in telling him? It wasn't like he felt the same or anything. She groaned and shook her head. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and clutched the pillow to her chest. She moped like this often, and it was all the fault of that stupid boy. She wished she could just get over him and get on with her life. Too bad she knew it would never happen. She had been in love with Edward since childhood. She let go of the pillow and got off the bed, standing and walking over to her desk. She opened the top drawer, and there it was.

Sitting on top of a picture of Ed, Al, and herself as kids, was the doll that had terrified her at first. It was a cute thing, now that she wasn't afraid of it anymore. She traced a finger down it's face, smiling at the memory. They really had always been amazing alchemists. She didn't wonder why Ed had become a state alchemist. She just...disliked all the trouble he got into. To put it mildly.

She sighed once, and shut the drawer. Suddenly, she heard someone coming up the stairs. She froze. There was a clank and then no sound, until another clank. It must have been Edward. She darted to the door and made sure it was locked. It was. His footsteps passed her door and faded as he went into his room, grumbling something to himself. Good, she didn't want him in here anyways.

Except she did.

* * *

A few hours later, Pinako called up the stairs. "DINNER YOU TWO! GET OWN HERE." She then scuttled to the dining room. 

Winry sighed and got up from her bed. She opened her door and walked into the hallway. Edward did the same thing, coming out only a moment after she did. He looked at her, but she ignored him and walked down the stairs. He scowled. Why was she even mad at him anyways? He didn't get it, nor did he like it.

He tromped down the stairs after her. The two of them got to the dining room and Winry frowned. The only chairs left were next to each other. Silently, she took the chair facing Al. Ed took the last one left over. Pinako nodded to the food. "Go on then."

At the same time Winry and Ed went for the same bowl, their arms bumping into each other. A small red appeared on Ed's cheeks and he retracted his arm, deciding on a different dish. "Uh, you go ahead." He mumbled and turned to take the another bowl.

Pinako and Al exchanged a glance and rolled their eyes. Dinner proceeded pretty much the same way.

Ed and Al and Pinako talked.

Winry and Al and Pinako talked.

But Winry refused to say a word to Ed, or even acknowledge his presence. Ed was becoming uneasy. He didn't even know why she was mad at him, but whatever he had done it really seemed to have gotten under her skin.

After dinner, he went outside for a while, his arm still useless. He hadn't even brought it up with her; she wouldn't have listened if he had. As soon as the meal had ended she had gone back upstairs and into her room. Al was helping Pinako with the dishes, so Ed went out back. He sat in the grass, and stayed there in thought for a few hours. His eyes were closed for most of the time as he tried to figure things out.

When he stood, thinking about going into the house, only one light was on. He sighed once, not realizing that in the summer beauty he had been out here quite so long. Then again, Pinako had a rather early bedtime, and Al liked to sleep.

Winry's light was off as well, but that told him nothing. He sighed and looked up at it. She was mostly what he'd been thinking about. He was thankful to Al that he hadn't come out to talk to him; Ed hadn't been in any kind of mood for that. He shut his eyes and exhaled, then stamped his foot on the ground. "I'm sorry already! Too bad I don't know what I'm sorry FOR, but I wish she'd stop being mad at me." He muttered to himself, gazing at her window again. He flopped into the grass, feeling slightly defeated. Damn the fact that he would never understand women.

A figure backed back into the shadows of the side of the house. A small smile played on the figure's face as she slipped silently back into her house, up the stairs and into her room. Falling asleep with a smile on her face, Winry decided that she would fix Ed's automail for him tomorrow.

* * *

Winry rose the next morning, tired as anything. She wandered downstairs in search of breakfast, arriving to see the kitchen empty of anything but dirty dishes. It was rather late in the morning and she hadn't really expected anyone to be there. She grabbed a glass of juice and walked out onto the porch. Ed and Al were outside practicing. Ed looked a little silly fighting with only one arm, but Winry knew he'd done it before. She amused herself for a while, watching the two of them fight. Al won, as he always did. Then they sparred again. They were so deep in concentration that neither noticed her. She slipped away before either did. She had a feeling she would just be an unwelcome distraction. 

She walked inside and went to the back room, finding her grandmother there just as she thought she would. "Good morning Granny." Winry said, rubbing one eye.

"Good morning dear." Pinako replied.

Winry blinked in confusion at her grandmother. "You're doing Ed's automail?" She asked.

"Well, you didn't seem like you were going to."

Winry shook her head. "No, no I'll do it." She yawned once.

"In a better mood, are we?" Pinako asked her. Winry only nodded. "All right then." She pushed her chair back and away from the table. "You have fun finishing up then. I told the shrimp to be ready for it at one, so you've got a deadline."

"Okay." Winry said, walking over and taking her grandmother's chair. Her pink handkerchief was on the table, and she grabbed it and pulled all her hair back with it, before beginning. She picked up Ed's automail, and started in on it.

* * *

At twelve thirty Winry wiped her forearm across her forehead and sighed. She'd been working on fixing his arm for hours now, and she was beat. But, it was finished and she felt good about it. She was thankful that Pinako had worked on it last night for a few hours herself, because Edward had certainly done a number on it this time.

She went into the kitchen, and saw Ed and Pinako. She was prepping him for having his arm put back in, Winry knew. "I'm done." She said to the pair.

Pinako nodded. "Good girl, I wouldn't have had that finished 'til at least one thirty." Winry cocked an eyebrow. Her grandmother had told Winry to be finished by one to...motivate her? Make Winry do something? To get to be lazy? Then teenager gave her grandmother a flat look. "Okay shrimp," Pinako said. "You're ready. Lets go."

"IM NOT A SHRIMP YOU DUMB OLD HAG!" Ed shouted in annoyance. Pinako ignored him and got off her chair and walked to the backroom. Winry followed her grandmother, and Ed shuffled in behind the two of them, still obviously miffed. Winry knew though, that once his arm was back on, her grandmothers teasing would be the last thing on Ed's mind.

As they all got situated Al came into the room. Ed's arm was lying flat and fixed on the table. Ed took his seat and Pinako attached the arm to him. "Are you ready, Ed?" she asked him. He gritted his teeth and nodded, tensing his whole body. She pursed her lips and nodded. Then, she flicked the switch that connected all of Ed's nerves. Ed writhed and shuddered in agony, but refused to so much as gasp. He panted heavily and continued to endure the pain.

"Get him to the couch now." Pinako snapped. Al and Winry snapped into action. Al picked up his brother carefully and Winry followed him. Al laid his brother out across the couch as Ed hissed breaths of pain. Al looked pained for his brother and Winry had knelt down beside Ed and was now wiping his brow with a cool cloth. She chewed her lip and wished there were something more she could do for him.

There were a few minutes in silence as she sat there, attempting to comfort him as Ed got used to having his nerves back. She wiped the sweat from his brow and gave him some water, sitting in the quiet with him while he gritted out the pain. Pinako sighed after a while. "Alright you two. Winry, I expect you to take care of Ed. I'm going to take Al to the market with me. We should be back in a few hours." Winry nodded at her grandmother and Ed didn't feel like moving. Moments later Pinako and Al were gone.

Winry sighed and brushed his forehead with the cloth again. "I thought you were...mad at me." Ed panted out. Winry shook her head and chewed on her lip for a moment.

"I was mad that you said I didn't care that you were coming." She said quietly. "I always care that you're coming Ed. I hate waiting however many months to know you two are alive and then to just see you in a bad state. But I always care that you're coming..." she said. She sighed once and moved a bit of his bangs back away from his face.

"Winry I didn't mean it..." Ed said.

"I know you didn't Edward. I heard you last night when you kept looking up at my window. I had come downstairs to talk to you, but after hearing what you said I didn't think I needed to anymore." She said, a smile playing across her face at this point. "You don't like me mad at you, eh?" she teased.

Ed's cheeks went pink. "Uhm...no." he said quietly, scowling.

She grinned. "Well I don't like being mad at you either. Sometimes you just say the most irking stuff..." she admitted. "But, you always redeem yourself in the end. I like that about you Ed." She said, not even realizing what she was going on about until the words were out of her mouth. Suddenly her own cheeks were a bit pink, and she looked away from his face. Holy crap. What did she just say?! That was so embarrassing, what had possessed her to say something like that?

Ed turned his head to look at her. "Oh do you?" She blushed deeper and threw the cloth on his face.

"Yea, so what if I do? You're my friend, why shouldn't I like things about you?" she said, her voice defensive, hiding something. Well off **course** she was hiding something. It was a hard thing to tell your very best friend that you were madly in love with him. She still wasn't looking at him.

He shook his head back and forth making the cloth fall off his face, before his left arm rose slowly and grasped a lock of hair, playing with it for a moment. "I like quite a few things about you too, Winry." He wondered if she could hear how damn loud his stupid heart was pounding. It was so loud he figured Central could hear it.

She looked at him, a little shocked that he was caressing her hair. "Oh yeah? Like what." She said, skeptical.

He sighed once. "Like everything, dummy." He said quietly. He snuck a small glance at her, averting his eyes from the floor. Her face was bright red, and she looked terribly cute. He let go of her hair and rested his arm on his bare chest.

Winry stared at him, dumbfounded. Once she found her voice she managed to say weakly, "Edward Elric if you're playing a practical joke on me..." she stopped then, the rest of her words dying in her throat as he stared straight at her.

"I'm not." He said simply. She looked into his eyes and she could see he was right, he wasn't kidding. There was something in those golden eyes...something profound. Something that she couldn't look away from. Something she didn't _want_ to look away from. His arm came up around, coming behind her neck this time and pulling her face closer to his. She let herself move forward, still staring into those eyes, closing hers only when their lips touched.

She melted completely into the kiss, the two of them responding to each other instantly. The kiss went on for moments that felt like minutes, before they both pulled away. Winry felt a little punch drunk. "Uhm...that was nice." She said.

Ed grinned. "Yea, I think so too."

Then she smirked. "But...I think you could do a little better."

"Oh you think so?" he said.

"Yea, I do." She said, continuing to look at him. Still unused to all this, she chewed on her lip a little. That one little motion was enough to drive Ed crazy. He pulled her back to him and kissed her more roughly this time. She let out a small squeak of protest at her head being shoved forward, but enjoyed it all the same.

When they broke apart again Ed growled, "Those are mine."

She smirked. "That's what you think." And she kissed him again.

* * *

Awwww. Cute fluuuuuuuff.Heh, fluff seems to be the only thing I'm writing now-a-days.  
Oh well. Nothing wrong with it :3  
Alrighty then. So my two ideas for one shots have now exited my brain.  
And...surprisingly...I like them a lot.  
Oh! And please review, because I** really **enjoy knowing what you guys thought about it. Reviews always inspire me, AND constructive criticism is good.  
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it :D 


End file.
